Mother Jones; Yuki Iwamura/AP; Mary Altaffer/AP; Elizabeth Williams/AP
The first criminal trial of a former US president is underway, with Donald Trump facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to hush-money payments allegedly made in 2016 to cover up an affair he had with adult film star Stormy Daniels. Here’s the latest—the key updates and absurd moments—from the historic trial.
Stormy Daniels, the porn star actress whose sexual encounter with Donald Trump is at the center of the former president’s hush-money trial, took the witness stand on Tuesday, offering lurid testimony about their relationship.
Daniels told the jury that Trump had said he and his wife, Melania, do not sleep in the same room. And that the former president once compared Daniels to his daughter, Ivanka. “She’s smart and blonde and beautiful and people underestimate her as well,” Daniels recalled Trump telling her.
All of which is enough to make anyone squirm, as it did for the former president who seemed so unusually alert and frustrated throughout Daniels’ time on the stand that his legal team requested a mistrial over what they saw as “prejudicial testimony.” Judge Juan Merchan declined the motion but acknowledged that some of Daniels’ testimony “would have been better left unsaid.”
So what detail appeared to anger Trump the most? That may have been Daniels’ testimony about spanking him. As my colleague Dan Friedman first reported in January 2018:
According to 2009 emails between political operatives who were at the time advising Daniels on a possible political campaign, the adult film actor and director claimed that her affair with Trump included an unusual act: spanking him with a copy of Forbes magazine.
Daniels confirmed as much on Tuesday when she testified about playfully spanking Trump “right on the butt” using a rolled-up magazine. NBC News reports that upon hearing these details, one juror visibly struggled to hold back laughter. At certain moments, Judge Juan Merchan seemed irritated by Daniels, warning her to stay on topic and repeatedly sustaining objections from Trump’s defense lawyers when details about their sexual encounter went further than Merchan appeared to appreciate.
“Just answer the questions,” he told Daniels at one point.
It remains to be seen how Daniels’ testimony shakes out for the case, especially as Trump inches ever closer to receiving jail time for his apparent inability to stop violating a gag order and his continued choice to defame his perceived enemies in the trial. That is, of course, if he can survive the excruciating testimony of Stormy Daniels.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
